Table Of ContentC O M M O D I F Y
UOSFE CRO CMRMEEARTCIVEIT AYN ADT CTHOME MINUTNEIRTSYECTION
Shenja van der Graaf
Dynamics of Virtual Work
Series Editors
Ursula Huws
De Havilland Campus
Hertfordshire Business School
Hatfield, UK
Rosalind Gill
Department of Sociology
City University London
London, UK
The book gives an original, critical and timely perspective on the socio-technical (co)design of
games/3D software platforms. The uniqueness lies in the integration of an in-depth analysis
of technological artefacts (toolkits, engines and interfaces) with user practices of ‘modding’
and the socio-economic context. The combined qualitative and quantitative research nicely
dissects the intricate interdependence and dynamic between developer companies and mod
developers, while indicating implications for firm-user learning opportunities and the dialec-
tis of community and commerce. A must-read for anyone with a keen interest in the trans-
formative potential of user participation that goes beyond typical celebrative thinking.
—Jo Pierson, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (imec-SMIT)
The ubiquity of user-created content on today’s leading digital platforms is largely considered
as an instance of democratization. While it is undeniably true that users have greater access
to the means of cultural production, how user participation is integrated and understood in
the industry workplace is less clear. This in-depth study of the work of “modders” of games
and virtual worlds is highly instructive to survey the blurring of boundaries among actors,
genres, user and firm practices and relationships. In her contribution to our understanding
of the “participatory turn”, Van der Graaf’s draws on exciting empirical data to challenge the
assumptions about the seemingly straightforward relationship between users and firms.
—David Nieborg, University of Toronto
Technological change has transformed where people work, when and
how. Digitisation of information has altered labour processes out of all
recognition whilst telecommunications have enabled jobs to be relocated
globally. ICTs have also enabled the creation of entirely new types of
‘digital’ or ‘virtual’ labour, both paid and unpaid, shifting the borderline
between ‘play’ and ‘work’ and creating new types of unpaid labour con-
nected with the consumption and co-creation of goods and services. This
affects private life as well as transforming the nature of work and people
experience the impacts differently depending on their gender, their age,
where they live and what work they do. Aspects of these changes have
been studied separately by many different academic experts however up
till now a cohesive overarching analytical framework has been lacking.
Drawing on a major, high-profile COST Action (European Cooperation
in Science and Technology) Dynamics of Virtual Work, this series will
bring together leading international experts from a wide range of disci-
plines including political economy, labour sociology, economic geogra-
phy, communications studies, technology, gender studies, social
psychology, organisation studies, industrial relations and development
studies to explore the transformation of work and labour in the Internet
Age. The series will allow researchers to speak across disciplinary bound-
aries, national borders, theoretical and political vocabularies, and differ-
ent languages to understand and make sense of contemporary
transformations in work and social life more broadly. The book series will
build on and extend this, offering a new, important and intellectually
exciting intervention into debates about work and labour, social theory,
digital culture, gender, class, globalisation and economic, social and
political change.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14954
Shenja van der Graaf
ComMODify
User Creativity at the Intersection of
Commerce and Community
Shenja van der Graaf
Senior Researcher at imec-SMIT
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Brussels, Belgium
Dynamics of Virtual Work
ISBN 978-3-319-61499-1 ISBN 978-3-319-61500-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-61500-4
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017947303
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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mission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or
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The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
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Cover illustration: Önder Özkan KILIÇ / Alamy Stock Photo
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature
The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
For my parents and Yuli, my light.
Acknowledgements
Over my journey of the years it took from my first interest in audience
research and digital culture in the 1990s (hello LA!) and now culminat-
ing in this book, numerous people have directly or indirectly guided my
Second Life.
A very big thank you for travelling with me, Robin Mansell. Her
knowledge, faith, generosity, kind words and absolute professionalism
have pushed me to go the extra mile. Without her this book might never
have been written. Sonia Livingstone kindly shared her intellect and
experience showing me that it is ok to walk many paths. For half of my
life William Uricchio has been my rock. He introduced me to the aca-
demic world and set me free.
I am indebted to the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
(Harvard), Hakuhodo Foresight, Research Center for Information Law
(University of St. Gallen), British Academy, Convergence Culture
Consortium (MIT), Institute for Data Driven Design, Valve Inc., Linden
Lab, OpenSim and many Second Life residents, especially Garrett Cobarr.
Thank you for your support. Also, Oliver Day. Thanks goes especially to
all at the Department of Media and Communications (LSE) for many
inspiring years. Also, a big thank you to my wonderful colleagues at imec-
SMIT (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), their support and wit in good and bad
times helped me to stay put and keep smiling. In particular, Wim
Vanobberghen, Carina Veeckman and Caroline Pauwels. I am f orever
vii
viii Acknowledgements
grateful for COST Dynamics of Virtual Work and the opportunities it
has given me, including this book and my son. Thank you, Ursula Huws
and also Keith Randle.
The support, inspiration and challenges offered by colleagues and
friends across several time zones have helped me tremendously in devel-
oping this research. David Nieborg, thank you for our unorthodox metal
friendship, and Doris Rusch for being true. Jonas Breuer, thank you for
being you, to have my back, and your critical eye in this endeavor.
Words are not enough to express my gratitude towards my wonderful
parents, sister and family, and friends. Thank you for always believing in
me and letting me be. With the door always open-wide my dad and mom
offer a home-away-from-home-away-from-home-away-from-home…
Thank you all for accepting my many periods of absence and true denial
and allowing me to multitask between several lives. Lastly, I am indebted
to Eran Fisher for his support and commitment to this project and our
life-long Yuli project. In clear and muddy waters, you have been there,
offering advice or just kept quiet. And the road goes on, and whither it is
bound, I do not know.
Brussels, April 2017
Contents
1 D esigning for Mod Development 1
1.1 “Hello, World!” 1
1.2 Approaching the Playground 4
1.3 A ll the Games That Are Fit to Mod 11
1.4 ‘You Only Live Twice’ 16
1.5 Playlist: Organization of the Book 19
2 P articipation and Platformization at Play 29
2.1 Participation, Innovation, Learning 29
2.2 All Work and No Play? 32
2.3 The Wisdom of the Firm 37
2.4 Toolkits for User Innovation 41
2.5 C onclusion: Digital Innovation Platforms 47
3 Game Changer 65
3.1 Design Capabilities 65
3.2 Th e Making of Second Life 66
3.3 X-Factor 69
3.4 Th e Many Lives of Second Life 71
3.5 Th e Developer Firm as Employer 76
ix
x Contents
3.6 The Developer Community as Employer 79
3.7 Conclusion: Patterns of User Participation 83
4 Of Toolkits, Engines and Interfaces 91
4.1 Design Space 91
4.2 Inside Second Life: Micro-Level Design Space 93
4.3 Accessing Second Life: Meso-Level Design Space 97
4.4 The Underworld: Macro-Level Design Space 100
4.5 Servicing Second Life 103
4.6 C onclusion: Performative, Iterated and Contextual
Mod Development 107
5 L earning and the Imperative of Production in
Mod Development 113
5.1 L earning by Design 113
5.2 M od Development as a Learning Dynamic 114
5.3 M astering Second Life: The Developer Firm’s Perspective 117
5.4 M astering Second Life: A Mod Developer’s Perspective 121
5.5 L earning from User Participation 125
5.6 C onclusion: Complex Learning 137
6 S econd Life Between Participation and Competition 143
6.1 State of Play 143
6.2 U ser Participation Revisited: Qualities 144
6.3 U ser Participation Revisited: The Context of Commerce 147
6.4 U ser Participation Revisited: Benefits 151
6.5 Conclusion: ComMODify! 157
7 Commodify! And Beyond 163
7.1 Grounds for Play 163
7.2 A t the Crossroads of Commerce and Community 165
7.3 M atters of Public Value, Literacy and Responsibility 169
Index 179
